Taking
a giant leap toward more and more reliable renewable power, nine
European countries are joining forces with a plan to spend billions on
new transmission lines connecting Norwegian hydroelectric projects,
German solar arrays, British wind farms and more. This is a bold step
into the future for Europe, which had its hopes for an international
emissions treaty dashed during the Copenhagen climate talks last month.

So far, the agreement includes Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and the U.K., with official plans expected by the third quarter of this year.
The timeline may not be rushed — with construction expected to begin
sometime in the next ten years — but it represents the first holistic
attempt to funnel renewable energy into Europe from disparate sources.
It also puts the European Union’s goal of producing 20 percent of its
energy from renewables by 2020 within reach.

To give you a sense of the scale, rough plans earmark $48 billion in
spending for DC power cables alone. This is the core of the project —
the need to install several thousand kilometers of transmission lines.
DC lines are said to lose less electricity over long distances. By
uniting several different types of alternative power, these lines will
make it possible for German solar to keep the lights on in the U.K.
when the wind isn’t blowing. Alternatively, British turbines could keep
the Belgians warm when skies are gray.

When the North African solar project
is complete, this new grid may be extended to take advantage of some of
the most abundant solar resources on the planet. Set to have a
generation capacity of 900 megawatts by 2020 (enough to power 900,000
homes), the North African installation is just the beginning in that
sunny region.

While solar has stolen the spotlight in Europe, with Germany and
Spain leading the global market by no small margin, Europe also has its
sights set on becoming a wind powerhouse, with 100 gigawatts of
offshore wind under consideration. That’s huge — 100 gigawatts could
potentially power 100 million homes. On top of that, Norway is pumping
27.5 gigawatts of hydroelectric onto the continent, and its only using
half its capacity. If it could only better export this energy, it could
bring in a substantial amount of revenue from its neighbors.

But, if these nine Northern European countries do succeed in moving
things along, this could exert pressure on both China and the U.S. to
get their act together when it comes to renewables. If any region is
lacking in the necessary human and natural resources (sunlight in
particular), its Northern Europe. So if they can do it, there’s little
excuse for everyone else to twiddle their thumbs.